WRD releases water for irri, yet Pench dams at 100%

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The Times Of India16th October, 2019 04:56 IST

Nagpur: With the district witnessing a dry spell of over 15 days, the water resources department (WRD) has started to release water for irrigation from Pench reservoirs since the last 10 days. Yet, the dams — Totladoh and Kamptee Khairi — still have 100% water as inflow continues from the catchment areas, bringing more good news for the city as well as farmers.

WRD executive engineer JB Turkhede told TOI the dams will have 100% water even if irrigation continues by farmers till October 15. “Gates of Madhya Pradesh’s Chaurai dam have been closed. Chaurai dam has 96% storage as on date. Still, water continues to come into Pench dams. We have to open gates if the dams have 100% storage and inflow continues. But we prepared a plan, closed gates and started to release water for irrigation from October 4. Water is being released by continuing hydro power generation. Thus, we are serving many purposes at the same time and saving around 100 million meter cube (MMC) water,” he said.

The WRD has started to release water through left bank canal (LBC) as it supplies water to all paddy growing areas like Parsheoni, Ramtek, Mauda, Tumsar, Mohadi and Bhandara tehsils. WRD is likely to also start releasing water through right bank canal (RBC) in the coming days.

WRD has reportedly fixed a target of releasing 350 MMC for irrigation during the ongoing kharif season. Last year, WRD could release only 200 MMC due to less water storage in Pench dams. Of total area of 1.04 lakh hectare, water was supplied to around 70,000 hectare. Not a single drop of water was given for irrigation during rabbi season last year. This year, WRD has plans to give sufficient water for rabbi season too.

Even after release of water to irrigation for two seasons, demand of city’s drinking water supply is likely to be met for the current and next year, along with requirement of other dependents like Kalmeshwar town, and Mahagenco’s Koradi and Khaparkheda thermal power stations.